Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-01

through the breastplate, through the bod
OF the warrior, ana cut through the back
plste. VIVA. symbol of that Gospe
which is sharper than tWo-edge
sword, piercing to the dividing asunde
of soul and body, and of tn
joints and msrroW, Would to God IF
mad more faith in that Gospel! The hum
blest man In this house, if he had enough
faith il Him, could bring bundled soul!
to Jesus-perhsps five hundred. Just il
proportion, as this age seems 10 belieyt
less end less in it, l believe more anC
more in u. Whist are men about that they
will not accept their own deliversncet
There is nothing proposed by men thai
can do anything like this Gospel. The
religion OF Ralph Waldo Emerson is the
philosophy of icicIes; the religion of Theo
dore Parker was was sirocco of the
desert, covering up the soul with dry
sand the religion of Renan is the TO
nance of believing nothing; the religion
Of Thomas Carlyle is only condensed
London fog; the religion of the HuYleys
and the Spencers is merely pedestal on
which human philosophy sits shivering in
the night OF the soul, looking up TO the
stars, Offering no help to the nations
that crouch and groan 81 the base. Tell
me where there Is one msu who has re-
| jected That Gospel for another, who is
thoroughly satisfied, and helped, and con-
tented IN his skepticism, and | will take
the car tomorrow and ride five hundred
miles to see him. The full power of the
! Gospel has not yet been touched. As 8
| sportsman throws up his hand and catches
| the ball
FLYING THROUGH THE AIR,
! Just so easily will this Gospel after g
WhIl@ catch this round world flying from
its orbit and bring it back to the heart of
Christ. Give it full swing, and it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound, cure
every trouble, emancipEte every slave,
and ransom every nation. Ye Christian
men and women who 90 out this after
noon TO do Christian work, as you 90
into the Sunday schools, and the lay
preaching stations, and the penitensiaries,
and the aSylums, l want you to feel thst
you bear in your hand q weapon, com
p&Ted with which the lightning has no
speed, and aYalanChes have no heit, and
the thunderbOi!s of heaven have no
power; it is the arrow OF the omuip0tent
Gospel. Take careful aim. Pull the
arrow clear back until the head strikes the
bow. Then let it fly. And may the slain
of the Lord be many.
Again, If you want to be skillful in
spiritual hunting you must hunt in unfre-
quenJed and secluded places. Why
does the hunter 90 three or four
days III the Pennsylvania forests or over
EaQuetto lake into the wiIds of the
AdirOndscks? 1t is the only way to do
The deer are shy, and one Chang" of the
gun clears the forest. From the Cali
fCrDia stage you see, as you go over the
plains, here and there, 8 coyote trOtting
along, almost within range of the guE-
sometimes quite within range of il. No
one cares for that; it is worthless. The
good game is hidden and secluded.
Every hunter knows that. So, many
of the souls that will be OF most worth
for Christ, and of most value to the
church, are secluded. They do not come
in your way. You will have to 60 where
they are. YOnder they are down in that
cellar, yOnder they are up in that garrett.
Far away from the door of any church,
the Gospel srroW h2s not been
POINTED AT THEM.
The tract distributor and the city mis-
sIonary sometimes Just catch 8 glimpse
Of them, as hunter through the trees
gets commentary sight Of partridge or
rOctuck. The trouble j. we are waiting
for The game 20 come 10 Us. We arc not
good hunters. We are standing in
SCherm =rhOTn street, expecting that the
timid antelope will come up and eat out
OF our hand. We are expecting that the
prairie fowl will Light on our church
steeple. 1t is not their habit II the
church should wait 100000 of
years for the world TO come in
and be saved, it will wait
IN vain. The world will not come. What
the church wants now is TO lift their feet
from damask OttOmans and put them in
the stirrups. We want pulpit on wheels. |
The church wants not so much cushions
as it wants saddle bags and arrows. We
have got to put aside the gown and the /
kid gloves and put on the hunting shirt. /
We nave been fishing so long in the brooks |
that run under the shadow Of the church (
that the fish know US, and they avoid the !
hook, and escape as soon as we come to |
the bark, while yonder is Upper Saranac !
and Big Tupper's Lake, where the first |
swing Of the Gospel net would break it for /
the multitude of the fishes. There is out
side work TO be done. What is that l see
in the baCkwOOds? II is tent. The hunt
ers haYe made clearing aud camped ont. !
What DO they care if they have wet feet,
or if they have nothing but pine branch !
for pillow, or for the northeast storm?
II moose in the darkness steps into the
lake to drink they hear it right away. If
q loon Cry ia the midnight they hear it.
So in The service of God we hsve exposed
work. We have got to camp out and
rough it. We are putting all our care on
the 20, 600 penple nf RrOOklyn. who thew
say, come to church. What are we doing
for the 10000 that do not come? Have
they no souls? Are they sinless that they
need no pardon? Are there no dead in
their houses that they need 10 comfort?
Are they cut off from God,
TO GO INTO ETERNITY
no wing to bear them, no light to cheer
them, o welcome to greet them? Ihear
to-day surging up from the lower depths
of Brooklyn q groan that comes through
cur Christian assemblsges and through
our Christian churches, and it blots out
all this scene from my eyes to-day as by
the mists of g great Niagara, for the dash
and the plunge of these great torrents of
life dropping down into the fsthomless
and numbering abyss of suffering and
woe. l sometimes think that Just as God
Olotted out the church of Thyatira and
COrinth end Laodicee, because of their
sloth and stClidity. He will blot out
American and English Christianity, and
raise on the ruins 4 stalWaTt, Wide-awake
church, that can take the full
meaning OF that command $50 into all
he world and preach the gospel to every
'reature. He that belieyeth and is bap-
lied shall be saved and he that beIieyeth